Matina Levendi (2188686) Jaleesa Wening (2188672)

COAC4 F

Crisiscommunicationplan

Marieke Kamphuis Course Code: 2259XADV14

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INDEX INTRODUCTION 3 INTERNAL ANALYSIS 4-6 ISSUES ANALYSIS 7-11

ISSUE 1 7-8 ISSUE 2 9 ISSUE 3 10

RISK MATRIX 11 CRISIS ANALYSIS 12-16

ARENA ANALYSIS 12-13 WHAT IF… 13 CRISIS COMMUNICATION 14-16

SOURCES 17-18 ATTACHMENTS 19-22

LONGLIST ARENA ANALYSIS 19 EVALUATION CRISIS DAY (PRESS CONFERENCE) 20-21 PEER EVALUATION 22

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INTRODUCTION Welcome to our Crisis Communication plan, Our names are Jaleesa and Matina; two students of the Communication: International Event, Music and Entertainment studies. We are graduating this year and to complete this, we are following some advanced courses this semester. One of the advanced courses that we are following is Strategic Communication Management. This subject fits our study very well and is not completely new, since we already had an introduction of this subject in the second year. For this course, we had the assignment to write a crisis communication plan for a company. You had to find three issues, put these three through a life-cycle and a risk-matrix, find out which issue had the most chance to turn into a crisis, and then write a ‘What if..’ chapter for that issue. We chose to work with McDonald’s as our company. We worked out one issue of McDonalds into a complete ‘possible’ crisis. We thought of a plan on how to use communication means, strategies and other tools to save the crisis. We hope that you will enjoy reading it!

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INTERNAL ANALYSIS The micro-environment exists from internal influences that can be controlled by McDonald’s. These are part of the internal analysis. An internal analysis is used to get a good sight into the organisation. Vision “To be our customers’ favourite place and way to eat.” (McDonald’s, year unknown). Slogan “I’m lovin’ it” Mission “McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favourite place and way to eat and drink. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which centre on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers' experience.” (McDonald’s, 2012-2015) Organisation policy Offering Quality Food, Healthy Choices McDonald’s is committed to providing the highest quality food and superior service, at a great value, in a clean and welcoming environment. That is why we work with our employees, franchisees, and suppliers to serve a balanced array of food choices and provide the nutrition information needed for customers to make sound decisions. At the restaurant level, McDonald’s is focused on energy conservation, sustainable packaging, and waste management. We are dedicated to innovation and improving our operations in order to build an even more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and profitable business. And we will continue to reoptimize our menu, modernize the customer experience, and broaden accessibility to our brand, so that consumers will always enjoy the maximum McDonald’s experience. (McDonald’s, 2010-2015) Employers McDonalds has and provides the best employees-business relationship via providing an equal opportunity employer. As an equal opportunity employer McDonald’s ensures that employees and job applicants are selected, trained, and promoted without discrimination to race, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability. (Author unknown, 2015) The company promotes their employees based on their relevant skill, talents, and performance. In support of this McDonald's promotes and sustains a working environment, which is free from unlawful discrimination, harassment and bullying. (Author unknown, 2015) Employees are regarded as members of a team where everyone's opinion is valued and respected. The Human Resources department monitors the effectiveness of the discrimination policies at regular intervals and takes corrective action as necessary to ensure that they being complied with employees who feel that they have been treated unfairly are encouraged to use the remedies outlined in the Company's handbooks. (Author unknown, 2015)

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Structure McDonald’s has a functional structure, which serve many product lines in the same industry. Its chain of command is as follow:

1. Chief Executive 2. Operations 3. Development 4. Finance 5. Marketing 6. Human Resources (Author unknown, 2015)

McDonald's are structured along functional lines. Their Chief Executive oversees five major areas of activity:

1. Operations (equipment and franchising) 2. Development (property and construction) 3. Finance (supply chain and new product development) 4. Marketing (sales marketing) 5. Human Resources (customer services, personnel, hygiene and safety). (Author unknown,

2015) Culture McDonald’s is all about corporate culture. From its Hamburger University (where managers and assistant managers are trained) to its vision statement of Quality, Service, Convenience, and Value (QSCV), McDonald’s corporate culture is a shared value system that forms the basis of all company decisions. (Author unknown, 2015) A relatively enduring, interdependent symbolic system of values, beliefs, and assumptions evolving from and imperfectly shared by interacting organizational members that allows them to ascribe common meanings to stimuli encountered in the organizational context; these functions are accomplished through the mediation of implicitly and explicitly rules that act as cultural warrants. (Author unknown, 2015) Values McDonalds has a work ethic, which contains the following values:

We place the customer experience at the core of all we do. We are committed to our people. We believe in the McDonald’s System. We operate our business ethically. We give back to our communities. We grow our business profitably. We strive continually to improve. (McDonald’s, 2010-2015)

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Leadership style McDonald’s has been focussing on a cost-leadership strategy to win market share in a highly competitive industry, and has reached its dominating position in the market using the strengths of the franchise model of distribution (Author unknown, year unknown). McDonald’s has exploited its strengths in standardisation of operations, sales and marketing, supply chain management and brand building initiatives. The community initiatives and display of corporate social responsibility go on to strengthen the brand image, involving local communities into the corporate brand and reaching out to a wider market. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to service standards, customisation to suit local cultural values, addressing health issues associated with its diet and focussing more on customer satisfaction, than having a pure and unrelenting focus on business turnover and cost leadership alone. This would help in sustaining the market leadership in a volatile market scenario with high levels of rivalry within the industry players, where customers have no switching costs in terms of choosing alternative brands or substitute products, and in an industry that has minimal entry and exit barriers and hence has high threat of substitutes and new entrants.

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ISSUE ANALYSIS An issue is an event or problem that lives in the society. Something happens and people create an opinion about it, what causes advocates and opponents. The discussion that follows makes it a so-called ‘issue’. For example: obesities, oil spoils in the ocean, alcohol use by youngsters or habitant’s privacy for government. People have different opinions about these subjects. In some cases the government has a big role, in others companies and organisations have a big role. An issue can turn into a crisis in a very short time. A crisis is only relevant for an organisation, company, government or another big party because a crisis is related to the image and reputation of that party. (Coombs, 1995) When an issue turns into a crisis the organisation must react on that to save their reputation and trust. ISSUE 1 CUSTOMER SERVICE McDonald’s has a reputation of bad customer service: employees are not customer friendly and they get minimal training in hospitality. This results that customers have created a bad image for the food chain. McDonald's customer service is bad and the fast-food chain told franchisees in a presentation leaked to the Wall Street Journal last year that service was "broken." Many customers say is that many McDonald's employees are "rude and unprofessional." (CBS, 2014). McDonald's told franchise owners earlier this year that one in five customer complaints are related to customer service, and that number is growing all the time, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Ashley Lutz, 2013) One reason why McDonald's employees might be feeling stressed out is that the menu has grown too large in recent years. In 1980 McDonald’s had 26 menu items. Now they have 121 menu items. (Jeff Toister, 2014). Also the wait at McDonalds’s drive-through is the longest in at least 15 years. At 189,5 seconds, it’s nine seconds longer than the industry average. The Wall Street Journal's Julie Jargon also pointed out that one of the chain's biggest problems is high employee turnover. Because most employees make a low hourly wage, they are less likely to be loyal to the company or think twice about leaving. (Ashley Lutz, 2013)

Figure 1 (Jeff Toister, 2014)

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Issue in life cycle: This issue is in phase 3, Current Issue. It is a big problem that is still growing. They are doing different things like handing out sauces while the customers are waiting in de drive-through of McDonald’s and they made several changes in the menu. It does not help because in 2014 they had the longest waiting line in 15 years than the industry average.

Figure 2 (ACSI, 2015)

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ISSUE 2 FOOD QUALITY McDonald’s has been in the news about their poor quality of food several times. It is not a surprise that the food that the food chain has been selling, is not of the best quality. Overall, fast food remains bad to the human body. Other than the fact that fast food is unhealthy, McDonald’s has dealt with a few other issues about food quality. An issue from last July (2014) was that a supplier to McDonald’s in China had been accused of supplying rotting meat to the fast-food chains and falsifying product expiration dates. The Shanghai food safety department said that it had closed a meat and poultry processor on the outskirts of the city after an undercover investigation. They found out that the supplier of McDonald’s was in fact putting new labels on expired meat among other food safety violations. McDonald’s apologised to their Chinese customers after publication of this story. (Lucy Hornby, 2014) Another known issue from the past half year is that top chef Jamie Oliver accused McDonald’s of having unhealthy ingredients in their famous burgers. The chef had tried several times before to prove what McDonald’s meat could do to your health. After a few failed attempts, Jamie Oliver succeeded last summer in proving how bad McDonalds meat is. It seemed that McDonalds was using ammonium hydroxide to convert fatty beef offcuts into a beef filler for burgers. McDonald’s denied this at first. They said that its hand had been forced by a TV campaign. (Jill Reilly, 2015) McDonald’s now have altered the ingredients after Jamie Oliver forced them to remove the ammonium hydroxide (also called ‘pink slime’). The filler product made headlines after he denounced it on this show: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. (Jill Reilly, 2015)

'Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans' said the TV chef.”(Jamie Oliver, 2015)

After months of campaigning, McDonald’s admitted to defeat and the fast food chain has abandoned the beef filler from its burgers. (Jill Reilly, 2015) Issue in life cycle: The issue of food quality has reached the stage of Crisis Issue. The issue has reached formal institutions with authority as the government and people already are up-to-date about the issue. The media has also handled it in their publications. This means that the issue has unconditional acceptance. This does not mean that the issue is already solved. The greatest reputational and long-term impact can be from issues, which develop after the crisis. Post-crisis issues can persist for years or even decades and may impact whole industries (Jaques, 2007).

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ISSUE 3 HEALTH ISSUE (OBESITY) Fast food chains contribute to obesity. The trend is that we want to live healthier. It is generally known that nowadays a lot of people are obese. Fast food chains are a reason of this and this is also an influence from McDonald’s. There are several issues that have to do with the development of obesity and McDonald’s is one of them. A former manager has sued McDonald’s for his obesity problem. He won the case and he got a compensation of €12.500,- (Novum, 2010) Additionally Morgan Spurlock made a documentary about the McDonald’s. Personally he explores the consequences on his health of a diet of only McDonald's food for one month. McDonald’s wants to do something with the trend of living healthy and sustainable food, so they will work out their poor image. That is why they have taken various measures such as changing the red background in green, which stands for ecological, and responsibility. They have changed the menu and the decor of the affiliates to do with the trend; sustainability. McDonald’s uses a nutritional pointer on the packaging and place mats that provide information about the number of calories, fats and carbohydrates in a product. (Author unknown, 2013) This did not work out because McDonald's has been proclaimed Liegebeest 2013. Wakker Dier said McDonald's is a real 'greenwash champion', they make beautiful ornamental with lettuce of the country, but in the meantime they still use chickens that did not live healthy and natural. (Novum, 2013) Issue in life cycle: Issue 3 is like issue 1 in phase 3, Current Issue. There are still protests of Wakker Dier because McDonald’s promises a lot to their customers but also keeps back some information about the chickens. Until today, McDonald’s uses unhealthy chickens with an unhappy life and they are not honest and transparent to the customers.

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RISK MATRIX

IMPACT

ISSUE 1: Customer Service Customer service has two different sides. When you look at the waiting line at the McDonald’s drive-through, the probability is very high, because people are not willing to wait for a long time. When you are a customer inside the restaurant, the probability is a bit lower, because people do not care a lot if the personnel is kind or not. It will not keep them away of going to McDonald’s. The impact is by both very low, because customers do not have high expectations of McDonald’s because it is a fast-food chain. McDonald’s is handling the issue of customer service already, but there is are a lot more things that they can do to actually solve this problem. ISSUE 2: Food Quality The issue of food quality has bot a very high impact and high probability. When people find out that something is really bad for your health (and for your children’s health), it has a very big impact on them. Whenever they hear that McDonalds put ammonium hydroxide into their meat, people will stop eating it. This comes also from the fact the people nowadays are more conscious about what they eat. The probability is also high because it is a known fact. McDonald’s says that they stopped putting this in their burgers, but people will still ask questions about what else they put in their food. The food quality has the features to become a crisis. ISSUE 3: Health Issue (Obesity) With this issue it is hard to say what the risk factor is. This comes because obesity or other health issues both have a high probability and high impact, but you can point your finger to McDonalds. They are not the main reason for obesity. People choose by themselves to eat fast-food or to eat healthy.

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CRISIS ANALYSIS Whenever an issue takes a turn, it can become a crisis. A crisis can be defined as the following: “An organizational crisis is a low probability, high impact event that threatens the viability of the organization and is characterized by ambiguity of cause, effects and means of resolution, as well as by a belief that decisions must be made swiftly.” (Christine Pearson and Judith Clair, 1998, p. 60)

The analysis will be made for the issue about Issue 2: FOOD QUALITY. We chose this because we think that this issue has already had the most impact on the customers and we remain to be a big issue (or maybe crisis) in the future. You can also see in the risk matrix that it has the highest score. Besides that, it is now the most relevant issue of McDonald’s.

LONGLIST:

Customers McDonald’s Management McDonald’s Employees McDonald’s The Jamie Oliver Group Department of Food & Public Distribution Department of Health & Human Services Other fast-food chains (Burger King, KFC) Government Media Hospitals/ Doctors Scientists/ Researchers

KEY ARENA Stakeholder Degree of power &

authority in issue? What’s interest in

issue? Degree of activity & visibility in issue?

Customers McDonald’s

+/- ++ +

Management McDonald’s

+ + ++

Employees McDonald’s

- - -

The Jamie Oliver Group

+ ++ ++

Department of Food & Public Distribution

++ ++ ++

Department of Health & Human Services

++ ++ ++

Other fast-food chains (Burger King, KFC)

- +/- --

Government

++ + +/-

Media - + ++

Hospitals/ Doctors

+/- ++ +

Scientists/ Researchers

+/- - +

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Conclusion Key Arena In the key arena you can see which stakeholders have the most powers and which ones can possibly do something about the situation. What important is, is that the customers have the most interest in the issue, but they cannot do something about it. Besides them, also Jamie Oliver’s company, the Department of food & public distribution, the Department of health & human services and the hospitals/doctors have a lot of interest in the issue. The biggest power lays by the government and the two departments. Quite a few stakeholders are in the position to do something about the issue. These are the management of McDonald’s, The Jamie Oliver Group, the two departments and the media. Legend: ++ = A lot of power, interest or effectiveness + = Some power, interest or effectiveness +/- = Neutral - = Little power, interest or effectiveness -- = No power, interest or effectiveness at all When you look at the outcomes of the key arena you can from the shortlist: Shortlist

Department of Food & Public Distribution Department of Health & Human Services The Jamie Oliver Group Management McDonald’s Customers McDonald’s

These four stakeholders have the best chances to solve the crisis or to do something about it. Behind them are the hospitals/doctors and the government. WHAT IF… In one week, more than 2600 people with the same problem admitted in the hospital in the USA. After that week, more and more people with the same problem singed in, and some people from the week before even died. The doctors knew that they were dealing with a problem, but they did not know whit what. It had something to do with food. That was for sure. But where did these people eat? The victims came from everywhere in the country. After two weeks, more than 500 people died. The researchers found out that the problem came from the beef burger of McDonald’s. It seemed that McDonald’s was using the matter ammonium hydroxide as beef filler for their burgers. McDonald’s knew that ammonium hydroxide was bad for people and that they could get ill of it. They never expected that so many people would die, but even then they did not do something about it. This is why this crisis is intentional. The organization knowingly placed people at risk, took inappropriate actions or violated a law/regulation.

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CRISIS COMMUNICATION Objectives/Targets Knowledge: Know the truth about the mistake of McDonald’s and the victims. Attitude: Accept the mistake and be open for the solutions of McDonald’s. After that, decide if you will ever eat at McDonald’s again or not. Behaviour: Give McDonald’s a chance to find a solution for this horrible accident. Decide after that if you can still identify yourself with McDonald’s or decide that you will never go there again, because they did not handle the crisis well. Goal: Everyone needs to know about the problem and McDonald’s has to answer all the questions of the customers. McDonald’s needs to re-win the trust of their customers. Strategy It is known that the crisis was intentional. McDonald’s knew that they were putting people in risk. Therefore they need a strategy were they can explain themselves and try to re-create their image. They need to make use of a ‘Rebuild crisis response strategy’ (Coombs, 2007). This means that McDonald’s can give something back to the people (compensation) and that they have to make an apology. Whenever you use an apology as a company, it is very important what you say because you make yourself very vulnerable. At first, McDonald’s CEO will have to make a public apology. Hereby, he needs to tell how sorry he is, that McDonald’s actually is taking the blame and that the burgers that have ammonium hydroxide in them, will not be sold anymore. Then McDonald’s needs to make sure that all sick people will get a compensation for their trouble and that families of people who died, will also receive a compensation. This compensation will probably be money. Of course McDonald’s can compensate with something else, but money is mostly used in cases like this one. The final step is for McDonald’s to be transparent about possible other food issues and to not keep secrets from society. They need to make themselves vulnerable and they need to be honest. This way people will have affection for them and re-form their image. In this strategy we will also use a combination of reactance and scrutiny. Everything that is going to be communicated will be checked to make sure McDonald’s arguments are reliable. With the base of reactance it is sure that McDonald’s will respect the opinion of the victims. It is important that McDonald’s creates an atmosphere were the victims can tell their worries and ask their questions. Message In the message there will be two phases. The first phase is where McDonald’s makes their public apology. Not only to the family of victims and victims who are still sick, but also to the rest of the society. The second phase is where McDonald’s shows results of their new beef. Beef that does not contain any ammonium hydroxide and that is not bad for your health. McDonald’s will have to announce that they are taking the problem very serious and that all remains of the beef have been removed. The message could be something like this:

“Dear all, I, as CEO of McDonald’s am, truly sorry for the crisis that we have caused. We are doing everything we can to get the ammonium hydroxide out of the beef and to prevent further damage. Our thoughts go out to all the family and friends of the victims. We are hoping to help wherever we

can. McDonald’s is now researching how exactly this could have happened.

Because the strategy is based on reactance and scrutiny, the organisation will share (where needed) results from the research.

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Target audience The target audience are some of the stakeholders used before in the key arena. The most important group are the victims and the family of the victims. Also the customers of McDonalds are very important. Besides them, the management of McDonald’s has a very important part in this crisis. Jamie Oliver also makes a big part of this crisis, because he focussed attention on the issue. The Department of Food & Public Distribution and the Department of Health & Human Services are next in line. At least, the marketing department and the communication department because they can make a new strategy for the customers to trust MacDonald’s again and to limit the damage of the image of MacDonald’s and for a crisis plan. Communication means The communication means will fit within the target group. Some means can be applied on more target groups, others are pointed at a specific group. Most of the communications will be transparent (if it is relevant). McDonald’s will let the CEO talk and show their support this. That will create trust. The organisation must react quickly with their communication. Because of that the most important communication will be in seven days. After these seven days they will still continue with their communication. Here are the most important messages: External communication When Target group Comm. Means What

Day 1; McDonald’s finds out why this happened and apologises to victims and family of the victims.

Victims, family of the victims

Personal call and after that by email

Apologies and explanation what they are going to do

Day 2; McDonald’s will talk to the media, government and the rest of the world.

Media and government

Everybody

Press conference

Social media

The CEO tells the press what happened, that they called the victims and the family of the victims and what they are going to do.

Expanded message with what they have done till now, what they are going to do now and later.

Day 3; They will answer questions to be transparent.

Media

Everybody

Interview

Social media and website

McDonald’s will answer all the questions for so far. Also doctors are present at the interview.

Video of the interview on social media and the website.

Day 4;

Media and government

Press release on social media, website McDonald’s and other news sites.

In the press release MacDonald’s will tell a summary of the last days and research results.

Day 5; Everybody Social media What they are going to do and they organize one minute silence at the end

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of the week. Day 6; Everybody Social media Update of the research,

remember of the one minute silence.

Day 7; Media Press release and social media

More about the one minute of silence and what they are going to do now

After this week, McDonald’s will keep everybody updated throughout social media. They will also send out an email with specific information about the research and their next steps in this proces to all the departments of the company. Internal communication When Target group Comm. Means What Day 1 Management

McDonald’s

All the departments

Marketing and communication department

Personal email and a department meeting

Department email and a meeting with the manager of the department

Department meeting

They need to know what has happened and what they are going to do about it.

They also need to know what has happened and that the management will have to find a appropriate solution for the problem.

For the communication department, they will make a crisis plan and the Marketing department will make a new strategy

Day 2 Department of Food & Public Distribution

Department of Health & Human Services

Personal email

Personal email

They need to know what has happened and what they are going to do about it

They also need to know what has happened and what they are going to do about it.

Day 3 The Jamie Oliver Group

Personal email Apologize because he gave a sign about the food quality and McDonald’s did not listen to him.

Day 4-7 All departments Email CEO and communication department keeps everybody up to date about the research and the media information

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SOURCES Internal analysis Author unknown, year unknown, McDonald’s, Mission & Vision, http://www.mcdonalds.com.my/about_us/corporate_info/mission.aspx. Consulted on 10 January 205. Author unknown, McDonalds, 2010-2015, Misson & Values, http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mission_and_values.html. Consulted on 10 January 2015. McDonalds, 2010-2015, What we do, http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_system/what_we_do.html. Consulted on 10 January 2015. Author unknown, 2015, Internal & External analysis for McDonald’s, http://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/internal-and-external-environment-analysis-for-mcdonalds-marketing-essay.php. Consulted on 10 January 2015. Author unknown, year unknown, Strategic Management, McDonald’s Strategy, http://myassignmenthelp.info/assignments/mcdonalds-strategy/. Consulted on 10 January 2015. Issue Analysis Coombs, T. (2007), Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory, Department of Communication Studies, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL Jonathan Berr, 12 August 2014, 5 reasons McDonald’s has indigestion, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-reasons-mcdonalds-has-indigestion/. Consulted on 11 January 2015. Ashley Lutz, 2 October 2013, McDonald’s needs better customer service 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-needs-better-customer-service-2013-10#ixzz3OX9O91XV. Consulted on 11 January 2015. Jeff Toister, 9 December 2014. Why McDonald's Customer Service Sucks in Three Charts, http://www.toistersolutions.com/blog/2014/12/8/why-mcdonalds-customer-service-sucks-in-three-charts. Consulted on 10 January 2015. ACSI, 2015, McDonald’s customer satisfaction in the US, http://www.statista.com/statistics/216696/mcdonalds--customer-satisfaction-in-the-us/. Consulted on 11 January 2015. Lucy Hornby, July 2014, McDonald’s and KFC hit by China food safety scandal, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c84e2dfa-10ac-11e4-b116-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3OayRDIKO. Consulted on 10 January 2015. Jill Reilly, January 2015, Victory for Jamie Oliver in the U.S. as McDonald’s is forced to stop using ‘pink slime’ in its burger recipe, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092127/Jamie-Oliver-Victory-McDonalds-stops-using-pink-slime-burger-recipe.html. Consulted on 10 January 2015. T. Jaques, 2000, Developments in the use of process models for effective issue management, Asia-Pacific Public Relations Journal, 2 (2) (2000), pp. 125–132. Consulted on 10 January 2015.

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T. Jaques, 2006, Issue management: Process versus progress, Journal of Public Affairs, 6 (1) (2006), pp. 69–74. Consulted on 10 January 2015. Novum, 29 October 2010, McDonald’s schuldig overgewicht oud-manager, http://www.nu.nl/opmerkelijk/2366730/mcdonalds-schuldig-overgewicht-oud-manager.html. Consulted on 11 January 2015. Author unknown, 7 May 2013, Mcdonald’s dik in orde, http://www.coolinfographics.nl/mcdonalds-dik-in-orde/. Consulted on 11 January 2015. Novum, 14 September 2013, McDonald’s liegt over plofkip, http://frontpage.fok.nl/nieuws/617633/1/1/50/mcdonald-s-liegt-over-plofkip.html. Consulted on 11 January. Figures 1. Jeff Toister, 9 December 2014. Why McDonald's Customer Service Sucks in Three Charts, http://www.toistersolutions.com/blog/2014/12/8/why-mcdonalds-customer-service-sucks-in-three-charts. Consulted on 10 January 2015. 2. ACSI, 2015, McDonald’s customer satisfaction in the US, http://www.statista.com/statistics/216696/mcdonalds--customer-satisfaction-in-the-us/. Consulted on 11 January 2015.

Crisis Analysis Pearson, C. M. & Clair, J. A. (1998) Reframing Crisis Management. Academy of Management Review 32 (1) 59-76

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ATTACHEMENTS LONGLIST ARENA ANALYSIS Customers McDonald’s The customers of McDonald’s. These are all the people who go to McDonald’s or ever went there to eat. These can be men, women and children. Management McDonald’s The highest functions within McDonald’s. In management we think of the CEO, Presidents and Chiefs, Executive Vice Presidents, Global CSR, Sustainability and philanthropy. Senior Vice Presidents and Global Chiefs. Employees McDonald’s All employees that work at McDonald’s in a not management function. The people who work in the restaurants or factory. The Jamie Oliver Group The Jamie Oliver Group is a company owned by Jamie Oliver. In this case, Jamie Oliver is the only person we rely on, because he indicted McDonald’s because of their meat. Department of Food & Public Distribution The primary Policy objective of the Department of Food & Public Distribution is to ensure food security for the country through timely and efficient procurement and distribution of food grains. Other fast-food chains (Burger King, KFC) We chose for this stakeholder because we think that this crisis with McDonald’s could also have consequences for other fast-food chains. Government The government is a big part of this crisis. They can actually do something about this. The have the power to make McDonald’s pay for their mistake. Media The media had a very powerful position. They can make of break every company in the world. The media is important to use with this crisis. Whenever we use this well, the company’s image can outrun a lot of damage. Hospitals/ Doctors The hospitals and doctors concerned whenever customers get sick. They have to do everything they can to cure people. Scientists/ Researchers These stakeholders have to find out what ammonium hydroxide does, how it came in the beef, what is does to the human body, but also result the new researches about healthy meat.

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EVALUATION CRISIS DAY (PRESS CONFERENCE) MATINA LEVENDI PROCES

1. What did you know on forehand about the situation (facts)? I had heard of Burning man, but I only knew that it was a festival. I knew what Ebola was.

2. Can you determine the type of crisis the company or organisation was dealing with? I knew that a man entered the festival and that he was suffering of Ebola. He died during the festival.

3. Who was part of the spokesman team? The general director and the representative of Burning man (2 people), the department of homeland security & the Red Cross organisation.

4. Why did you choose those people/roles? We thought that these groups were the most important.

5. What do you think of the preparation in your team? It went very well, we divided the two groups into spokesmen and journalist and sat down separately. 10 min. before the start of the press conference we sat down all together. I think we did really well.

6. What do think of your role during the preparation and press conference I was the leader of the press conference. I think I did quite okay, but it was a bit scary. I found it difficult tot control the conversation between the spokesmen and the journalists.

7. What do you think of the press conference in general? Tips & tops Tops: It was nice to do something practical for a change. You learn more from that than just theory. Tips: Change of the room, we got bothered a lot by other people walking in.

CONTENT

8. Did you think of a key message, how did you use the knowledge from the course? If so, include the key message (1/2 page) I did, the first part is what I read as an introduction to the press conference. The names are in the order that I had to name them up:

Welcome everyone. We are here today to talk about the Ebola incident that happened at Burning Man’s annual event. On the 30th of August, a man suffering from Ebola died at the festival, which was held in Nevada’s Black Rock Dessert. The man came from Liberia and was visiting the festival with 10 friends. It is not clear when the man entered the festival and if he has made physical contact with other visitors. The spokespersons today are: Mrs. Jule Theunissen & Mrs. Annabel van Dijk from Burning Man. Mrs. Thenunissen is the general director of and Mrs. Van Dijk represents Burning man. Mr. Lars Bouwman from the department of the homeland security Mrs. Joy Buschgens from the Red Cross organization First of all they will make a statement, after this there is time for questions: For the journalists: Who wants to ask a question? What is your name (surname) and from which company are you?

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EXPERIENCE I have learned that you have to handle really quick and smart as a company if a crisis is happening. It is also really difficult to think of good answers to the questions the journalists are saying. For the journalists it is also hard to come up with good question and you have to watch out that you do have time to get answers to all of your question. A lot of times you ask one question and go on from there, that is the danger. I think that next time I would still want to be the leader because I like to have control. I would try to be less strict (I heard that I was a bit strict during the press conference). I think we all learned from this experience, and especially for the ones that are going to work with crisis management it has been really useful. I do not know if I am ever going to work in this area. JALEESA WENING PROCES

1. What did you know on forehand about the situation (facts)? I had heard a lot of Ebola but I have never think about it if someone got Ebola at a festival.

2. Can you determine the type of crisis the company or organisation was dealing with? There was a man of Nigeria who entered Burning man festival with Ebola.

3. Which media were you a journalist of? And the other journalists? I was someone from a local radiostation and my colleagues where from a news channel, a magazine and a doctor from a hospital.

4. Why did you choose those people/roles? Because it is a big problem and everybody needs to know about this problem. We did that with big companies from America because it is big news.

5. What do you think of the preparation in your team? We divided the roles very fast. Everybody did their part and we helped eachother with the questions.

6. What do think of your role during the preparation and press conference I did not prove myself because the 15 minutes were over and I did not ask one question. Unfortunately the last question was for someone else and after her it was the plan to ask my questions. The press conference goes very well because we were the first group of the day. They did not think about everything what we asked but in general it was nice to participate.

7. What do you think of the press conference in general? Tips & tops Tops: It was nice to see how this works. It gave a clearer picture of the assignment and of the real life situations. Tips: It would be nice to do both sides of the press conference and to get more preparation time.

CONTENT Which questions did you prepare, why those questions, were the answer satisfactory and if not, how did you react? My questions were if they think about the dj’s. If nobody can leave the festival, what are you going to do with the dj’s? If he needs to cancel other work, are you going to compensate that? What if a dj got ebola, what are you going to do with that? Because I am from a local radiostation I needed to ask something about music or dj’s. That is relevant for the radiostation. I did not ask my questions because there was no time for my question.

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EXPERIENCE What have you learned from this experience? Reflect on both roles (journalist and spokesman) I learned that the spokesman need to prepare some questions who the journalists are definitely going to ask. It is hard for the spokesman because they had a big issue and they also need to update the people. Also I learned that a journalist needs to think about what he want to say in the first week without saying to much because they can talk about that mistake later. What would you do the same and what would you do differently next time? I would take the same role as journalist but I think that I take another company because it was very difficult to make good questions for a radiostation. Next time I would improvise during the press conference so I can ask a question. How has this experience contributed to you as a professional? Now I know what a company needs to do if they have an issue. I also learned how I can write a crisis plan and what things are important during an issue. PEER EVALUATION Matina Levendi I liked this course very much. The reason why I choose this study was to learn about communication. My current job is also in communication so I find it very interesting to learn about different types of communication. Crisis Communication is something that can be very exciting and not boring at all. I like the fact that you need to handle fast as a company. I must say that I learned a lot during this course and that I enjoyed the teacher (Marieke) very much. I worked together with Jaleesa Wening. We have known each other since the first class and it is always pleasurable to work together. We made this whole plan together. We met a few times and sat down to work on this assignment. The only thing that we divided is that I was responsible for the text and Jaleesa was responsible for the layout. Jaleesa Wening I liked this course very much. I thought that I would never like this part of communication. You need to work with an issue that had a lot of impact of the company. You need to deal with unplanned reactions of people. After this course I really like it to work with an issue even though it is very difficult to function in this atmosphere. I learned a lot about how the impact of an issue to a company and that you need to be careful what you are saying during a press conference or social media. Marieke knows a lot and she is a perfect teacher for this course. She made the classes fun and argued contemporary issues, so everybody can talk about it. I worked together with Matina Levendi. We have worked together previously so it was easy to find a couple. In this stressful period I needed someone from who I knew that she can work together. We made this whole plan together. We met a few times and this plan was finished.